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Gravy Train

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Everything posted by Gravy Train

  1. Fortunately, I believe Congress has enough intel where our support will remain bipartisan, even if consituents from one party feel disillusioned over it. Like most things, the White House and our Press could do a far better job underscoring our need to support our allies and stability in Europe. I want to say the messaging could be better, but most of the opposition has failed to pick up a book or doesn't realize they're regugitating Russian-spiced agendas.
  2. They love our support and our way of life, but are taken aback by our internal political struggles and social issues which bubble up in the press. He says that Ukrainians share an American ethos in that the people of a nation can put their differences aside to fight for their independence. He starkly stated that's the difference between Ukraine/U.S. vs Russia- that Ukrainians (or Americans) would fight for their nation, where Russian's cause is to fight for their president. Pretty sure any American who visits Ukraine right now is treated as royalty, and he wants me to come over and visit as soon as I'm ready. He flashed me a smile with confidence that I'd be safer in Lviv than The Bronx right now and that he lives a normal way of life, enjoys stable electricity and uses Starlink Internet. I forgot to mention, he's a couple years younger than me (guessing around 42) and does have a military 'slip,' issued by the government, whereby it's possible he could be called up for duty. This hasn't happened though, as he doesn't have prior military service and his specialty is in IT, not in any fabrication or military hardware skill. He said he's had colleagues who were once IoT engineers and are now providing service to the military by modifying civilian drones, so now I know how one of the radio contacts was hijacked to serve as a grenade-drop mechanism. His travel to Dallas started by way of car to the Polish border checkpoint, where he has to declare what he's taking, what he's returning with, and when he's coming back. Says their border guards are really picky over that kind of stuff as they're hesitant to let any able-bodied man leave the country. He then flew from Warsaw to DFW via Atlanta. In order to return to Ukraine in good-standing with his military slip, he has to bring back an item or donation of high value to the country. He was last over here in December, when he returned with a Starlink terminal to donate. This time, he's bringing a $2700 Butterfly mobile ultrasound device to donate for the front lines.
  3. Okay, back home and can try to gather thoughts on my conversation over dinner: Zelenskyy was over his head when he first received Western intelligence on Russia's invasion plans. I can understand how improbable it seemed to him at the time, but the perspective is he had warning and overlooked the threat for almost a year leading up to the Feb 24 strike. Poroshenko knew military conflict was inevitible and tried to coach on Russia's buildup as Zelenskyy took office Yanukovich really set them back as a prospering nation attempting to disassociate from Russia The average Ukrainian trusts nothing communicated from Russian sources-- it's usually false there's always an agenda behind a message The average Ukrainian knows about the human atrocities taking place in the East, regardless of where they reside The average Ukrainian also gives no fucks about changing their way of life with conflict raging around them-- there's a sort of bravado about standing their ground, and there's a quote from an old woman on national news who once stated, "we lost our roof, our running water, our gas, our electricity, but we have freedom" The average Ukranian knows Russia is getting their shit pushed in on their territory and that they are running out of missles Russia will run out of money before running out of men, and that spells the real trouble within. Once the money dries up for military supply, for conscripts and for subsidies in the poorer oblasts, watch the discontept boil over So much of Russia's somewhat-modern military capability was borne of Ukrainian engineering and supply, including some of the Sarmat programs. My friend is involved with a Ukrainian Mil-Hacker group on Telegram. This is a pretty tight knit group of around 200 volunteers, most with advanced software and IT infrastructure backgrounds. Each day, the Telegram channel declares a 'challenge' on something related to the war, targeting Russia. Many are coordinated DDoS attacks on Russia telecom networks, some are hyperlocal and target their military comms. They're among the group responsible for halting Russian banks, breaking their postal and delivery services, and bringing down cellular networks Russian expats in Europe are grating. Most are still drinking the propaganda kool-aid and can be awful to deal with Germany does have a Russian problem- Ukrainians are disgusted with Scholz and understand enough Russians fled to Germany that they don't have a handle on everyone with a visa Poland is Ukraine's 'brother in arms,' and that anti-air coverage in Lviv is largely augmented by Polish missle systems He believes internal political parity exists to counter Putin but none united and loud enough to overcome their state propaganda. Ukrainians don't give any credit to Navalny, after his statements on Crimea (that Ukraine had little position over it any longer). In Ukraine, Sergei Furgal's efforts are more admirable for his membership in the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and leading anti-establishment opposition in the far east. Unfortunately, his influence isn't going to be noticed in the west aside from means to send him to trial in Moscow and lock him up, in which he's serving 22 years for a sham trial on a double-murder accusation. Igor Girkin gets a free pass to talk shit about the MoD as he still carries FSB credibility China is already bending Russia over in Siberia-- since 2019, there's a Chinese shadow logging industry operating mills in the region and and transporting lumber down the Trans-Siberian, but few are seeing any economic benefit from their rapid deforestation
  4. They legit used maps that were published prior to 1986 and had no idea of the containment area. I met my 'Ukrainian brother' tonight in Dallas, an old colleague I've kept up with on LinkedIn, who now is the CEO of a Ukraine based software development firm. He's in town to prospect clients, but as a condition of his exit, he must return with an article of significant aid to his country. I bought him a beef rib and beers from Terry Black's BBQ. We probably spent three hours catching up on life and the conflict he deals with on a daily basis. Fortunately, he and his family are safe in Lviv, but he did have to move from Kherson a year ago and his brother was left behind. I'm gonna forget all the talking points and perspectives and some may come back to me. I gotta check on some things at home before I post, and he's inspired me to make a visit soon. If I do, I'm best to smuggle in any high dollar medical equipment needed on the front lines.
  5. All twenty T-14 Armatas inbound to make for fun M-777 targets
  6. Same thread shows one of our RQ-4B Global Hawks spending its entire range encircling something from the Black Sea Fleet, while a report from the account states that 5 vessels from that fleet are carrying a total of 32 Kalibrs set to volley into Ukraine over the next 24-72 hours.
  7. We've all established the novel coronavirus originated from China, be it wet market or virology lab leak. Several other pandemics originated from China too, including variants of the avian flu and a swine flu with human pandemic potential. Like Covid-19, China's response should be enough for us to continue our decoupling posture from China. Their officials knew of the outbreak weeks prior, but travel associated with the Chinese New Year really kicked off its global spread. What's changed since?
  8. Interesting that with a population of just 490,000, Kaliningrad has already lost ~74,000 able-bodied men.
  9. Sir, this is the Ukraine thread. Therefore, сука блять, иди на хуй!
  10. Those hypothesis go way further than necessary. With accession into the EU, with border security, Ukraine is ripe to become the union's biggest trading partner. Economic development opportunities are incredible, from precision manufacturing, to shipbuilding, to petrochemical... and those are the trades they're already good at. I have an old Ukrainian software engineering contact who's since started his own firm. They are a bright, crafty bunch who just need security and an honest seat at the table.
  11. ^where does that number align with what Trent Talenko tweeted two weekends ago stating RU's deployed losses were closer to 200,000?
  12. Chineses just chasing Ruble on this but I wish Western media would put their shit on blast and sanction Chinese industry which operates close enough to military industry for the CCP to realise we're watching their shady asses. Aren't we all watching them closely for action upon Taiwan within the next 2-3 years?
  13. Putin is losing respect in the Kremlin, which leads to more leaders falling down stairwells and out of windows, as they're burdened with the blame or seen as potential opposition threats. Unfortunately, as more damages mount, the more extreme Putin's response may be, especially once the security of Crimea is threatened: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/putin-rebellion-russia-ukraine-war-failures-6tw7mrqh0
  14. So... wages are surely the last domino to follow, now that we've cemented a new price for everything, right?! 🤡
  15. Detroit-area dealers have Bronco inventory at MSRP. Don't play dealership games, they have 8,000 competitors and archaic laws are the only thing keeping their racket alive.
  16. With its reputation of the Hårsfjärden incident, I'm not sure anyone wants to ask the Swedes what's going on in their waters.
  17. I assume the "blade" is sealed and not serviceable internally, but swappable with other capacities? A dual or 4-slot enclosure with embedded RAID controller would be tits.
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